Allow me to share a little... (or a lot)
John and I have been married 7 years and in the 7 years, John went from doing ministry with high school students with Hi-BA in New Jersey to church planting this postmodern Asian Canadian church called Waves in Richmond, B.C to being a Campus Mobilizer with SEND International to missionary to the Philippines. In the meantime, I went from teaching Jr. and High school at a Christian school in Coquitlam to teaching ESL and GED to adults in the innercity in Vancouver at Union Gospel Mission to becoming a full-time mom and now going to the Philippines with SEND.
John moved from NJ to Vancouver and we got married soon after. John began his ministry role as one of the pastors (out of four) at Waves and I continued teaching at a Christian school. After about three years teaching at the school, I got another job as a special aid to an Autistic boy at another school. That lasted 2 weeks and then they laid me off due to lack of funding (at least that's what they told me) so I ended up looking for a job. I got the teaching job at UGM soon after.
I enjoyed my time at UGM and it was there I saw God's awesome love and power work every single day. Prior to working there, I had critical judgements and assumptions about people who lived in the innercity (drug addicts, the homeless, working girls etc.) but with the Lord's grace, as many such people came into my classroom, I started to see them with different eyes (maybe through His eyes?). I think I learned more from them than they learned from me! I taught ESL to many new immigrants and as relationships with many of these students developed into friendships, to this day John and I have become wonderfully blessed by them (ex. Ali and Annie and Cindy) I learned a lot about grace, forgiveness and second chances during my 3 years at UGM. After my time there, the Lord gifted us with Kayla and yet again, my job description changed to full-time mom.
Waves was a learning experience. Unfortunately after about 5 years it folded and we were left feeling a bit disillusioned and a little bitter. I had a lot of questions about church in North America and whether I needed it. We started looking for a church to go to after Waves and the more we looked, the more discouraged we got wondering whether there was a church out there that actually taught from the Bible. I heard a lot of fluffy stories and motivational speeches but exegetical biblical teaching was hard to come by. In the majority of the churches we visited, the people weren't very welcoming or friendly to us newcomers which made me realize how important it is for me to show extra attention when new people come to church. After about 6 months, to be frank, I was ready to throw in the towel and say "Forget this, I don't want anything to do with church or ministry for that matter. . ."
This was a dark time for us because there was so much negativity and apathy in our hearts - we were in the desert. I was leading Bible study with some friends I met at UGM who were new Christians or were interested in Christianity and I had to tell them that I couldn't do it anymore because I didn't feel right about teaching the Bible when I was struggling spiritually myself, I felt like a hypocrite.
For both John and I, we were at the very end of our ropes but we decided to give it one more go so we went to First Baptist Church in Vancouver one Sunday. To make another long story short, we ended up attending First Baptist for a year. Not to put this church on a pedestal but, it was everything we were looking for - a great children's program, solid biblical teaching every week, friendly people, we sensed this was a healthy body of Christ. Just when we thought we had lost all hope in what God created as a spiritual family, a direct example of His love for us, He lifted us up and saved us.
First Baptist didn't save us, God did. We know there's no perfect church. I'm not sure what all God wanted us to learn from this time in the desert but one thing I've come to believe now is that, you do need church. You can't live a Christian life without being part of a spiritual family. Church does not have to look like the conventional North American church as we here know it, it can take on many different forms. It's not always about programs and groups, it's really about finding friendships with others who you can encourage and share life with and visa versa.
So here we are, two days before 2007. If you refer to our post from Sept.7th we titled it "Beginning of a New Season" for more than one reason. Yes, it was Autumn but also because we finally felt like our hearts were restored and the Lord was taking us into a new season in our spiritual lives.
As we look ahead to 2007, we really don't know what the year will look like especially as we prepare to go the Philippines. Through it all I see how God has been there and I know He will continue to be just like He promises.
Hosea 6
1 "Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
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